


Cures for Boredom

by Lanerose



Category: Death Note, Hikaru no Go
Genre: Community: blind_go, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-05
Updated: 2016-05-05
Packaged: 2018-06-06 12:09:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,122
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6753256
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lanerose/pseuds/Lanerose
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which Hikaru finds a rather unusual notebook.</p><p><b>Challenge:</b> Blind Go Round 018<br/><b>Pseudonym:</b> Amririsu</p>
            </blockquote>





	Cures for Boredom

When he first saw where it landed, Ryuk was a little worried. The Deathnote lay just at the edges of a children's playground, its black cover in sharp contrast to the bright green grass around it. He'd never heard of a child getting hold of one before, though he knew it was against the rules to hand it to a child.  For a second he considered picking the Deathnote up and dropping it somewhere else instead. Somewhere less… wholesome. 

The idea had potential, though. A child he could teach to love their work, presuming the brat didn't immediately demand that the big scary monster go away, didn't give up immediately. So Ryuk left the book where it was, but waited close at hand. For a while he watched it like a hawk, but that got boring pretty fast.  He leaned back against a nearby tree, and closed his eyes.

**- - - - - - - -**

"Huh? What's this…?" A voice said some time later. "AH!"

The scream roused Ryuk. He opened his eyes to his host. He was older than Ryuk had thought he'd be, not one of the rugrats who would have played on the jungle gym but probably just someone passing through.  The bright blond bangs were an interesting touch on an otherwise classic human face.  Green eyes stared widely at him from under them, a focused look coming into them.  After a moment, his host tilted his head to one side, a frown crossing his face.

“Sorry, kid, I can’t read your mind,” Ryuk said.

The boy looked down, then quickly around the deserted park.  

“What are you?”  The boy asked.  “I know you’re not a ghost.”

“Do you?”  Ryuk asked, raising an eyebrow.  The kid looked singularly unimpressed.  “That’s an odd thing for you to know.”

The boy shrugged.  “I’ll tell you why if you answer my question.”

Ryuk sat up, crossing his arms.  “All right then, but we should go somewhere private if you don’t want everyone to see you talking to yourself.  And don’t forget the notebook.  You’re gonna need it for what comes next.”

The boy looked at him for a long moment.  He grabbed the notebook by one corner, gingerly, and scowled.  “Well, come on, then.  Let’s go.”

**- - - - - - - -**

The boy who opened the door of the apartment looked surprised to see his host. Ryuk took that as a good sign, especially when his host stormed past the other boy, waving the Deathnote and shouting, "I found it, Touya! I found it!"

"Shindou? What…?" the dark-haired boy asked.

Shindou –Ryuk's host, who had declined to provide a name during the explanations phase but did not know about Ryuk’s eyes yet and apparently either lacked the foresight to avoid people who knew it or simply decided that he didn’t care once he knew the rules – pushed past the other human, brandishing the Note as he stormed into the apartment, shouting, "I was never sure how to explain it but now - !"

Chuckling, Ryuk floated in after him. The boy – Touya – blinked a couple of times as Shindou paced back and forth in front of his couch.

"Shindou...?" The boy tried again.

"I knew it would happen some day!" Shindou said, waving his arms wildly, the Deathnote flailing oddly at the end of his hand.  He stuck it sheepishly behind his head and stilled for a moment.  "Well, no, not really, I didn't, but I figured either it would or I'd just never explain it to you.  But now I can explain it all!"

"All what?" Touya asked.  He grabbed Shindou's arm and pulled him towards the couch.  "And sit down.  I'm going to make some tea, and then you're going to explain."

“Touya, Touya, you don’t understand!”  Shindou said, vibrating where he stood before the couch.  He started to follow the boy - Touya - to the kitchen, but Touya gave him a sharp look and Shindou subside a little, flailing his arms again and saying loudly, “Sai!”

And like lightning, the tea was forgotten.

“What do you mean, Sai?  Shindou!”  The dark-haired boy was in his host’s face immediately.  He pushed Shindou onto the couch and sat down next to him, eyeing the Note curiously.  “What is that, anyway?”

Shindou looked at the Note, at Ryuk, and then back at the boy before him.

“Just - look, Touya, do me a favor and hold onto it for a minute, and then look to your left.”

Ryuk pulled an apple from his pocket and shined it on his coat.  Interesting….

Touya grabbed the notebook, brows furrowing at Shindou.  “Look to my lef - AH!”

The Note dropped onto his lap, bouncing down onto the floor.

“Who are you?” Touya asked, clamboring to his feet.  Shindou stood with him, hands out in a calming motion as Touya shouted, “How did you get in here?  What ARE you?”

“Touya.  TOUYA!” Shindou grabbed Touya’s hands.  Touya stopped, looking back to meet Shindou’s eyes.  “He won’t hurt you.  At least, I don’t think he will unless he’s forced to, and that’s not going to happen.  He’s a shinigami.”

“A what?!”  Touya eyed both Shindou and Ryuk with something like panic in his eyes.  “Shindou, this doesn’t make any sense.  And even if it did, what would it have to do with Sai?"

“I’m still waiting for my explanation, too,” Ryuk added, and when Touya turned to look at him full-on, added, “Boo!”

Apparently needling the dark-haired boy was the way to calm him down, because he didn’t jump at all, but rather let his eyes narrow into a glare.  Ryuk smiled wider and took another delicious bit of his apple.  His host had good taste in friends.

“Just as well, since they’re the same explanation,” Shindou said, and oh, this sounded promising.  Shindou tugged Touya back down onto the couch, settling comfortably.  Ryuk dropped cross-legged onto the floor opposite them.  

Shindou paused.  “It’s kind of a crazy story.”

“Crazier than you showing up at my apartment with a notebook that enables me to see monster-like shinigami?”  Touya asked.

Shindou winced.  “Well, when you put it like that….  It’s….  He’s a little bit like Sai, y’know.  The way you first saw him - if I’d handed you a goban with blood stains on it instead of a notebook, you’d have my first meeting with Sai.  I just looked up, and there he was.”

“Are you saying Sai was a shinigami?”  Touya asked.

“No, I - ”

“I get it!” Ryuk shouted.  “He was a ghost.  And he could hear you telepathically.  So that’s how you knew!”

Touya looked at the shinigami, and back at Shindou.  “A ghost?  Shindou -”

“Right.  Hang on, I should have figured out how to tell you the story on the way over,”  Shindou rubbed the back of his head absently.  “I knew I forgot something.  It’s just, I could finally explain it without you thinking I was crazy or something and -”

“Shindou.”  The word cut through the babbling.  Shindou coughed.

“Right.”  Shindou said.  “So, Sai.  The Sai who lived in me, who only you knew and could recognize - who played you the first two times at the salon and was my shadow - that Sai wasn’t actually in me, but rather a ghost named Fujiwara no Sai, who could only play go through me, because no one else could see him.”

Touya looked at Ryuk, then back at Shindou again.  “So this whole time…  You mean that this whole time… you haven’t actually… been my rival?”

Shindou shook his head violently, waving his arms frantically back and forth.  “No, no, you’re not understanding at all!  It’s… the first two games… well, two and a half, really, and the ones on the internet… those were Sai.  I… I hadn’t ever really been interested in go, at all, really, but Touya, the way you played go, even back then - you had eyes like a dragon even then, and I wanted to become like you!  So that’s why… I learned how to play.”

“Shindou.”  Touya glared at the blond-banged boy.  “You say that, but how can I ever be sure?  It’s not like I can see Sai, even if he’s standing next to you right now.  Isn’t he?”

The words hit Ryuk’s host like a punch to his gut, the corners of his mouth turning down and his eyes pinching with restrained tears glistening in them.  “No, Touya!  No.  Sai is… “

“All you are is the go you play?”  Touya stood again, shouting.  “You must have laughed at me together!  You’re not even that, since it’s not even your go, you -”

“HE’S GONE, TOUYA!”  Shindou yelled, jumping to his feet as well, the tears pouring more openly.  “I don’t know why, but after that game with your father… he thought he was going to leave, and then one day he was just gone!”

A sob shook Shindou, who took a breath before continuing,  “And I looked for him, I looked for him everywhere, and he wasn’t anywhere!  He’s gone!  And I’m sorry if I’m not good enough for you, but the Sai who taught me and is in my go is all that’s left of him and - Why did I even want to tell you this anyway?  I’m going home!”

Shindou grabbed the deathnote from the floor and stormed toward the door, only for Touya to grab his wrist.  Shindou stopped but kept looking forward.

“Stop, Shindou!  Just…  just wait a minute.”  Touya looked at the floor, then tugged on Shindou’s wrist.  Shindou turned but still didn’t look up.  After a moment, Touya looked at Ryuk.  “Is he telling the truth about the ghost being gone?”

“Touya - “ Shindou said, eyes wide and sad beneath his brows.  He struggled against Touya’s grasp on his arm, but Touya held firm.

Ryuk met Touya’s eyes for a moment, observing that Shindou had been right about him - he looked like an angry dragon.  

Ryuk shrugged.  “It’s not like I know everything about the supernatural just because I’m a shinigami, kid.  But for what it’s worth, I don’t sense anything else lingering around him, and anything like that would probably have kept him from picking up my deathnote. Hungry ghosts don’t share well.”

Touya looked back and forth between the shinigami and the boy.

“Shindou,” he said after a moment, “was it – did he – was his departure why you stopped playing go that spring?”

Shindou swallowed. His voice shook as he said simply, “yes.”

“But why? If you could already play on your own – “ Touya’s grip on Shindou loosened, but Shindou didn’t pull further away, letting his arm hang limply between them.

“I thought – I hoped – “ his voice cracked. “Sai was Shuusaku, you know. Or at least, Shuusaku’s games were played by Sai, through Torajiro. I thought that if I stopped playing, if I promised to give all the games to him from then on – I thought he might come back.”

Shindou’s hands clenched into tight fists, his shoulders rising.

“That’s why – I –“

“Are you actually stupid?” Touya asked then, and Shindou spun to face him, his fists rising as if for a fight. “Would Sai have been happy to know that the go world was being deprived not only of his go, but of his student's go, too? That we lost not only him, but you – my rival – too?”

“I didn’t think about it like that then!” Shindou yelled, but his hands unfurled as he said it.

“Well, obviously!” Touya said, crossing his arms. “Because you’re an idiot!”

“I’m not an idiot, you’re an idiot!” Shindou shouted back. “Like that game last week, when you made that stupid cut –“

“Hey!” Ryuk floated between them, and the boys both stepped back quickly. “As cute as this is, can we get to the part where you kill your enemies now?”

“I’m sorry, what?” Touya asked. “Shindou – that is, you haven’t –“

“Touya!” Shindou shouted back. “What kind of idiot do you take me for? No, I have not killed anyone.”

“Not even Ogata? Because I know you don’t like him but –“

“No, not even Ogata!” Shindou sighed, rolling his eyes. “But don’t tempt me, because I still think he’s creepy.”

Shindou turned to Ryuk and held out the Note.

“Sorry,” he said. “It may just be a dream, but I still think Sai’s waiting to meet me again after I die, and I can’t take the chance of messing with that, no matter how much I dislike anyone.”

Ryuk sighed. “That’s unfortunate, kid, ‘cause you’re interesting. Touya, I don’t suppose I can tempt –“

“I’m sorry,” Touya interrupted, “but we’re not interested in anything you have to offer.”

Ryuk took the note from Shindou’s hands and disappeared from their sight. He phased out the door as they shouted in surprise.

Looks like he’d have to find somewhere else to drop the Note again.


End file.
